The paper gives a working definition of "cultural heritage" as collection of tangible objects related to the cultural development of a society that are inherited from past generations and are valued by contemporaries as an expression of this cultural development. The potential benefits and costs of using this assets are discussed briefly. The main focus is on analysing how the institutional arrangements under whisch specific parts of the cultural heritage are made available to potential users affect the welfare created by the use of these assets. This allows to draw some conclusions about the optimal way of using cultural heritage.